Programmable logic devices (PLDs) (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), field programmable systems on a chip (FPSCs), or other types of programmable devices) may be configured with various user designs to implement desired functionality. Typically, the user designs are synthesized and mapped into configurable resources, including by way of non-limiting example programmable logic gates, look-up tables (LUTs), embedded hardware, interconnections, and/or other types of resources, available in particular PLDs. Physical placement and routing for the synthesized and mapped user designs may then be determined to generate configuration data for the particular PLDs.
The generated configuration data (also referred to as original configuration data) is loaded into configuration memory of the PLDs to implement the programmable logic gates, LUTs, embedded hardware, interconnections, and/or other types of configurable resources. The configuration memory of the PLDs may be volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM). In some cases, the RAM is static RAM (SRAM). Once the configuration data is loaded into the PLDs, the configuration memory is essentially read-only memory that cannot be changed by the user.